Bob Beatty: For youth in UK, it’s a horse of a different color

Monday

Jun 12, 2017 at 2:34 PM

Bob Beatty

LONDON — I’ve been coming to the UK since 2001 to study British elections, traveling along with parliamentary candidates in their constituencies. In the U.S., national elections are often ruled by 30-second TV commercials. In a competitive U.S. House campaign, at least $1 million can be spent on TV ads; in a Senate campaign, $20 million to $30 million. Contrast that to the UK: Not only no candidate TV ads, but a $15,500 limit on total spending by individual candidates. So, without the bullhorn/bludgeon of TV, elections here are much more nationalized, yet ironically also more personalized, as the candidates have to go door-to-door and seek much more personal interaction with the voters.

In 2005, we stumbled upon the Croydon Central constituency, which lies just outside of London. With university colleagues and my students I have been returning ever since. Beyond the candidates being gracious enough to put up with Kansans peering over their shoulders and asking them silly questions ("Um, what exactly is fly-tipping?"), Croydon Central is always intense because of how close the results have been: In 2005, we stayed up all night and watched recount after recount until Conservative Andrew Pelling was declared the winner by 75 votes; In 2015 Conservative Gavin Barwell defeated Sarah Jones by a mere 165 votes out of almost 53,000 cast. In Britain, they call it a "marginal;" the more colloquial term is that the race is on the "knife’s edge."

For this election, I again spent time with the incumbent, Conservative Gavin Barwell, and his challenger, Sarah Jones of Labour.

As they campaigned in the days ahead of polling day, both frantically worked the streets. When knocking on doors, Jones would send a team of volunteers out on a street, and then when someone got a "live one," she’d sprint to the door to "chat them up" and implore them to vote.

Barwell is a seasoned campaigner, even writing an excellent book in 2016 called "How to Win a Marginal Seat."He told me he enjoyed writing the book, but "I won’t be looking too good if we lose in a few days." A typical day of late for him included door-knocking, a hustings (British term meaning candidate forum) at a college, and talking to parents as they picked up their children at a primary school. When one of his volunteers, upon hearing a dog barking behind a door, backed away saying, "I don’t do dogs!" Barwell jumped in and knocked on the door himself. If you want to win, you have to do dogs.

Both Barwell and Jones’s campaign leaflets feature a silhouette of two horses in a by-the-nose finish at the racetrack, with text saying, "Croydon Central is a two-horse race." In Barwell’s leaflet, the blue horse is winning; in Jones’s, it’s the red one winning. If you’d put your money on the red one (which is perfectly legal in the UK), you’d be collecting, because Jones won in a landslide, 52 percent to 42 percent.

So what happened to the "knife’s edge" race? A key factor was the energy and passion of the younger generation. They not only turned out to vote, but they were also very engaged in Jones’ campaign, and in the Labour campaign nationwide. I met scores of 18 to 30-year-olds on the streets volunteering for Jones, many of them coming from other constituencies. Nationally, one poll showed Labour getting 66 percent of the youth vote. In her victory speech, Jones said, "Young people have taken back control. We have to repay their support and give them the life chances they deserve. People in Croydon voted for hope." Young voters were also deeply concerned with issues such as health care, spending cuts and education. Even though they don’t like Brexit (the UK leaving the European Union), that’s not what engaged them, but instead the "bread and butter" issues.

Croydon Central and the UK election may hold a lesson for Kansas politics.

The dominant Republicans have been running essentially the same campaigns for statewide and federal office since 2008 (including the recent special election in the Fourth Congressional District), focusing on Barack Obama, Obamacare, the "horrible" federal government and the "dangerous liberals." Tactically, I don’t blame them. It has worked over and over and over. But recent polls and the budget problems in Kansas indicate an increasing frustration by many. The candidates in 2018 (Republican or Democrat) who can figure out a politics of engagement that speaks to a desire for something different and doesn’t focus on labels and fear — and motivates 18 to 30-year-olds in the process — may find that’s the winning ticket in the upcoming big horse races in Kansas.

Bob Beatty is a political scientist in Topeka and a contributor to The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at bobbeatty1999@yahoo.com.

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